It's That Time of the Month, English Theatre, Berlin

A show that starts with a sketch that combines some athleticism with advice on mixing yoga with personal finance suggests it's going to contain oddities and imagination. And some decent laughs.

Seven women sat in a row exchanging banter sounds less promising, but turned out to be surprisingly effective at producing funny lines. Women who look too conventionally beautiful, ugly fruit and buying clothes in Lidl all wormed their way into the conversation.

A few improvised sketches followed, with laugh out loud highlights like the audio track for weightless sex and an Italian mama's dieting advice.

The second half followed a similar format, and if it never quite achieved the highs of the first there was still more than enough amusement to stave off any fears of boredom. The vagaries of improv are always such.

There's a mix of nationalities in the group, but their performances suggest long familiarity and confidence in each other's abilities.  No stand out talents, no obvious weak links. If you're in Berlin and looking for a decent laugh they'd be a good choice, performing every second Sunday of each month in the Comedy Cafe.

Nish Kumar : It's In Your Nature To Destroy Yourselves, Lyceum

New Yorker Sara Barron opened the show with a short, biting set.  She only married her British husband for the free health care and is bitchy and scathing about her friends.  Because that's what friends are for.  She reserves a special place in her vitriol for anyone who says their mum is their best friend.  And tells us why she really did receive the best marriage proposal ever (not the idle boast you might think) including a surprising use of the word baguette.

This comes with sharp observational humour that has you recognising people you know, and maybe yourself.  Barron is smart and funny and there are moments of full-on hilarity in the set.  Worth seeing.

Comedians who've become a 'name' on the telly can sometimes be a big disappointment when seen live.  No such let down from Kumar who set a high standard from the off and never let it drop.  Brexit, of course, featured for much of the set, with incisive perceptions that show the full folly of what's been happening for the past couple of years.  If it's a bit anglocentric at times he can just about be forgiven in a show that's touring UK wide, and he does emphasise he wants us to stay in the UK because we're sometimes England's best hope.  His comments about appearing on TV with some of the lesser intellects amongst Leave-backing MPs (one of whom had a stint as brexit minister) are worth the ticket price alone.

The same twisted intelligence is also shone on Trump, male feminists, sex pests and the so-called 'incels'.  Add in the notion of a sweary Ghandi, a bit of physical comedy and a surprisingly good Josh Widdicombe impression and you have a set that's covering a lot of ground, provokes and prods, produces original ideas and provides laugh after laugh after laugh.  If you like Kumar on The Mash report, and have been impressed by his thoughtful performance on Question Time, you'll think even more highly of him after seeing this show.

Green Book

Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) is a New York night club bouncer and tough guy who finds himself out of work for a couple of months and in need of a temporary job.  Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is a jazz pianist embarking on a tour that will take him across the deep southern states of the US.  He needs a driver, preferably one who can offer him some protection, so he signs up Vallelonga, and off they go.  Shirley is cultured, multilingual, hugely talented and very particular in his manners.  His relationship with the rough and ready Italian gets off to a bad start and it takes time for each of them to fully appreciate the qualities of the other, and to learn a bit about life from the experience.  That they will end up as friends, of a sort, is never in doubt.

It would be all too easy to dismiss Green Book as just another buddy-buddy road movie that ticks the boxes.  Mismatched couple forced to spend a lot of time with one another?  Check.  'Hilarious' cross-cultural misunderstandings?  Gradual dawning of friendship and respect?  Check.  Personal epiphanies to ensure a happy ending?  Check.   It's all there, and in one sense this is a film where you know exactly what you're getting.

Two elements save it from banality.  Firstly the outstanding performances of the leading duo which avoid any dangers of caricature and remain believable throughout.  Ali gives Shirley a surface strength and deeper vulnerability that combine into fun when he gets the chance to play some rock 'n roll.  Mortensen's hard man has a brash surface, low cunning and a brutal way with people who cross him.  But his growing affection for his new boss feels natural and human without becoming sentimental.

The second element is context.  This is 1962, Shirley is black, his driver white (hailing from a bullishly racist community), and the southern states have scant regard for the rights of negroes, no matter how much of a star they might be.  Vallelonga has plenty of opportunity to show off his abilities in protecting his passenger, and have his eyes opened when he sees the treatment being meted out by society to the brave pianist.  That this was based on real events makes the events portrayed all the harder to accept.  And that title?  The Green Book was a list of hotels in the USA which would accept 'coloreds' staying the night....

Like, say, Philadelphia before it, this film takes a standard Hollywood drama format and uses it to bring across the evils and horrors of bigotry and discrimination.  Any movie which brings those issues to mainstream cinema audiences, and manages to be very thouroughlyentertaining in the process, gets my backing.

Intronauts, Traverse

In the future we'll have our personal cleaners.  Not to dust around, but to sort out our own bodies.  From this premise comes a one hour comedy/drama with models, puppets and an intriguing set.  Behind a thin transparent curtain (membrane?) a man is trying to work (with the curtain acting as his computer screen).  Frustrated, he calls up his personal intronaut, asking her to perform some cleaning operations.

We switch to the interior of the miniaturised mini-submarine that moves around his body performing maintenance tasks, and the single crew member who, in contrast to her uptight host, is is wacky, energetic and enthusiastic.  Mixing the live action with puppets and scale models we see her performing her tasks, coping with frustrations, always happy.

Until the man asks her to go to his brain.  He's sad and wants her to find the switch that will make him happy again.  Reluctant at first she decides to accede to his wishes and the results are unpredictable.  The man is given an insight into who he might have been.

There's a good story in there, but not fully realised.  It takes too long to move the action into the brain where the possibilities for moral explorations were endless, and that failure to attempt to gain some understanding is frustrating.  But that doesn't prevent this being an enjoyable way to spend an hour.  The acting is good, there are a lot of laughs, and the use of puppets, models and graphics is engaging and clever.  It's even more impressive when you see that only three performers were needed to create all we'd seen before us.

A missed opportunity but a lot of fun.

Adam Holmes and Heidi Talbot, Traverse

A double bill of two equally talented acts (and the same extremely talented guitarist).

The opening set saw Heidi Talbot take the stage, with Kathleen Boyle on piano accordion and Sorren Maclean on guitar.  Her voice remains the same sweet and husky Irish-lilted instrument that has made her such a star of the folk world, and deserves a wider audience.  Funny, gentle, at ease with herself, Talbot is a charming presence and on top of her craft, with two excellent musicians in support.

One of whom stayed around for the second set.  Maclean joined Alex Hunter on bass and Calum McIntyre on drums to form The Embers, backing band to local singer/songwriter Adam Holmes.  In contrast to what had gone before this was a much rockier affair, a few familiar numbers among a lot of new material from Holmes.  Strong vocals, interesting melodies and lyrics, decent arrangements and the presence of Sorren on lead guitar made for an excellent second half.